How Melbourne looked to those Ol' Blue Eyes

October 3, 2002 — 10.00am

Melbourne nightclub singer Norm Erskine was so beloved by the city's bookies, so the story goes, that he would sometimes give them a private latenight performance, with the bookmakers throwing money at the stage as they called out requests. Big Norm ended the night up to his knees in folding money.

Ted Robinson, television producer, loves a good yarn and for much of the past year he has been happily trawling through Melbourne's past, uncovering gems such as this tale about Norm Erskine, a bright light in the nightclub scene of the 1950s.

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Robinson has a special fondness for the dark, whisky-soaked world of Melbourne's nightclubs at the time when gents wore hats and their dates dressed up to the nines. It's an era that he believes deserves a documentary or series of its own.

Robinson first met Erskine through his research for Shout, the miniseries he directed for Channel Seven in 1996, and turned to him again for his latest project, The Way We Were - Frank Sinatra in Australia.

"I'm fascinated by the seamy underbelly of Australia at that time, and Norm knows as much about the underbelly, seamy and otherwise, as anyone I've ever met," Robinson says.

Erskine, still crooning sweetly so many years later, is one of the stars of Frank Sinatra in Australia. Sitting at a glossy black grand piano, he tells of being discovered by Sinatra in the 1950s and travelling to Las Vegas to open for the Rat Pack. "When we went there it was 1957, he was God. Sinatra said 'cigarette' and nine lighters came out," he says.

Lounging across the top of the grand piano, while Erskine plays, sings and reminisces about Sinatra, is Mark Trevorrow, best known for his Bob Downe character. Trevorrow, we quickly discover, is a big Sinatra fan.

While Erskine and others recollect their encounters with Sinatra on his many visits to Australia, Trevorrow smoothly plays host, narrator and enthusiastic fan.

The show is filmed in a nightclub setting, with a live audience seated at small round tables. It is as much, if not more, about Melbourne as about the famous singer.

Of Sinatra's famous scenes with exwife Ava Gardner in 1959 Trevorrow says: "Hollywood private lives being played out before our eyes under the Melbourne spotlight. Who knew Melbourne even had a spotlight?"

Well-chosen news clips provide great snapshots of Melbourne over the years - one from the 1960s explains without a hint of a smirk that strippers may strip down to a minimum of "two stars and bikini briefs which must be at least half an inch on either side".

The media had a big part to play in many of Sinatra's tours, and much is made of his "bums and hookers" jibe in 1974. Former ABC head of television Gail Jarvis was a 19-year-old cadet for Channel Nine at the time and was one of the reporters who provoked the star's anger.

Sinatra's insult came after a series of mishaps no doubt deeply wounding to his ego. At Tullamarine no one met his plane, he was driven into town in the wrong car, and at Festival Hall the singer had to push his way through the media throng to bash on the stage door before he was allowed inside.

Jarvis, who with a cameraman was mistakenly included in Sinatra's convoy, was among those chasing Ol' Blue Eyes.

It is hard to imagine today the outrage that followed Sinatra's socalled attack on the press. Film from the time details what became a national incident with a union blackban on Sinatra's plane, and phone calls from then prime minister Gough Whitlam.

Ted Robinson laughs at the irony of Bob Hawke, then head of the ACTU and with a wild reputation, fiercely defending the honour of the country's women journalists.

After more than 40 years spent working in television, including five years as the ABC's head of comedy, Robinson has an impressive collection of ideas and talent just waiting for the right vehicle. He and producer Pam Swain hope the Sinatra special may be the first of a series of shows using music to look back on Australian history.

"With things like Shout and Long Way to the Top (the television series on Australian music) we've tapped into a wave that we didn't know was there. My guess is that it's probably to do with baby boomers wanting to examine where they've come from."

The Way We Were - Frank Sinatra in Australia screens on Sunday at 7.30pm on the ABC.